McCain Campaign Press Release - "In Case You Missed It": "Obama's Missed Visit"

"U.S. Sen. Barack Obama evidently cared more about criticism back home than visiting wounded American soldiers in Germany." --Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

"Obama's Missed Visit"

Editorial

Pittsburgh-Tribune Review
July 30, 2008

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama evidently cared more about criticism back home than visiting wounded American soldiers in Germany.

That's the explanation from a spokesman for the presumptive Democratic Party presidential nominee when asked why Mr. Obama canceled a planned visit to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center during his tour of the Middle East and Europe.

The Obama campaign couldn't keep its story straight.

The first explanation was that the junior senator from Illinois had decided to cancel the visit because the campaign-funded trip might have been viewed as inappropriate. Later, the campaign blamed the Pentagon for classifying the visit as a campaign stop.

The Department of Defense disputed the original Obama spin -- and then the backspin.

As a U.S. senator, Obama most certainly could visit the wounded and brought office staff -- just not from his campaign. "(R)ather than go forward and potentially get caught up in what might have been considered a political controversy of some sort, what we decided was that we not make a visit and instead I would call some of the troops that were there," Mr. Obama told The New York Times.

He still could have visited had he kept his Big Media fawners behind. Presumably, that would have been too audacious for the self-proclaimed agent of change.

ReadThe Editorial